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LITR 5439 Literary & Historical Utopias
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1st Research Post 2011
Meryl Bazaman
Germania’s Volkshalle: How Utopian Motives Support
Dystopian Realities
Adolph Hitler or his incomplete, super-city concept Germania is typically not
associated with utopia or utopian motives. Most Western educated individuals
tend to view him and his products as dystopian because of the following: his
willful overseeing of Holocaust atrocities, implementation of destructive
Eugenics policies, and erroneous belief that his Nazis could emulate and exceed
Greco-Roman civilization. As a
grandchild of a Holocaust survivor and researcher of fascist/communist regimes,
I find myself drawn to what appeared to be in my mind an interconnectivity of
utopias or utopian motives and dystopian realities. I found myself wondering
aloud how could anyone of sound mind consider Hitler or his Germania inspired
and driven by utopian motives and concepts? Or if phrased differently,
how did existing utopian motives inspire Hitler’s
construction of a Germania? And if there is in fact a connection,
how can I demonstrate this in a single building of Germania?
Hitler claimed his Germania would, “
only be
comparable with ancient Egypt, Babylon or Rome. What is London, what is Paris by
comparison! " (Kirchner, n. pag). Hitler appeared to be inspired by an advanced
civilization origin point often evoked in utopian literature—the
Greco-Roman origin point. In Sir Thomas More’s
Utopia, Raphael Hythloday states,
“…I am indeed apt to think they (Utopians) learned
that language (Greek) more easily from it having relation to their own. I
believe that they were a colony of the Greeks…” (More, 55). Germany, like most
Western countries, had a longstanding, cultural and historical tradition of
absorbing and considering Greco-Roman civilization a significant facilitator of
Western civilization. Great Western leaders throughout time and history had
drawn links to this Greco-Roman heritage, and Hitler’s Germania was no
exception.
This brought me to the Volkshalle (People’s Hall),
Hitler’s gargantuan, domed fist of a capitol building,
which was modeled on Hadrian's Pantheon in Rome (Moore, n.pag). Hadrian’s desire
and need to adapt Grecian architecture and origin was mirrored in the creation
of Hitler’s Volkshalle building. The Volkshalle, as More’s
Utopia before it, claimed a connection with what was considered Western
civilization’s core—Grecian-Roman
civilization.
Germania not only drew upon the
utopian need to bind its culture to a highly civilized culture, but it also drew
upon the utopian product of distinctively, communal architecture. More’s Utopian
inhabitants lived in three story houses that were so uniform, “that a whole side
of a street looks like one house” (More, 31). Their homes shared a grandiosity
and similarity of style that distinguished them from the rubble living, real
world European peasants and the fictitious, war-like Zapolet tribes. More
described his chosen Utopian inhabitants as those that lived in buildings that
were distinguished by their collective purpose. Hitler’s Volkshalle, sought to
accomplish the same fraternity through its’ architectural construction. The
Volkshalle was described as being, “ …
around 320 meters (350
yards) in height and covered with a giant dome, it would have been the largest
domed building in the world — able to accommodate 180,000 people at once”
(Kirchner, n.pag). The domed Volkshalle was built to elevate and hold the Aryan
race above the masses; unifying Hitler’s chosen people through structural
methodology and separation from what was perceived to be the modern day
Zapolet’s, the Jews, Gypsies, and other perceived inferior subcultures. Both
Germania’s Volkshalle and More’s Utopian buildings were ultimately elevated and
built to unify the select masses.
The Volkshalle structure has shown that it is inspired by the
utopian concepts of derived origin from Greco-Roman civilization and having a
uniquely collective architecture. In the future, I would like to show how these
Utopian motives of origin and architecture influenced the construction of a
Germania by using Gilman’s Herland as
well as in Bellamy’s Looking Backward.
I also would like to further explore the selection/filtering process of utopian
inhabitants in utopias. As most utopias allude to breeding out the more negative
character aspects (a crude form of eugenics) and sharing certain, desirable
features, I believe this Utopian construct can easily be an aspect of how
inhabitants of Germania were selected.
Germania, Hitler’s Nazi Utopia was unquestionably a real world dystopia
for numerous individuals. By having understood the utopian concepts that
inspired the blueprints of the Volkshalle, one can gauge the interconnectivity
between what can start as utopian motives and contribute to dystopian realities.
Sources
Kirchner, Stephanie, “How Hitler Would Have Rebuilt Berlin”
Time.com (3/24/2008) n.pag. Retrieved June 16, 2011, from Time.com.
<http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1725102,00.html#ixzz1PS3y7ADT>
More,Thomas. Utopia. New York: Dover Publications, Inc, 1997.
Print.
Moore, Michael Scott, “New Exhibit Explores Hitler’s
‘Germania’ ” Spiegel Online International (3/10/2008), n.pag. Retrieved June 16,
2011, from Spiegel Online International Database.
Palmer, Caroline, “Hitler’s Gigantic Plans for New Berlin on
Exhibit” UK.Reuters.Com (3/14/2008) n pag. Retrieved June 16, 2011, from UK
Reuters Online.
“Hitler’s Hidden City” National Geographic Channel.
